A Spoonful of Sugar
by afraidtochange
Summary: Silly MCL fanfic. Doesn't really have much of a point, it's just a fun ride!
1. Chapter 1

Day 1... of hell

"Bite this please."

My head jerked up.

"W-What?"

From across the main desk, the Principal smiled at me sweetly and gestured to the form she was holding in her hand. I raised a brow and looked around.

From what I could tell, I was in a completely standard main office. Sweet Amoris High School looked, from what I could tell, completely normal, but then again, Oakheart is a small town...

Not really sure what I was doing, I took the form from her hand sceptically and looked at it, wondering where on the proffered piece of paper she wanted me to, uh, bite.

Just as I was raising the paper to my lips, the Principal burst out laughing. Pausing, I lowered the form again as she took it back from me, reaching up to wipe away a laughter inspired tear.

"It was a joke dear!"

"Ooooh..." I chipped in. Really?

"As if we'd really ask you to do that. This isn't a school of vampires, you know."

She was laughing - at me, I realised - but I didn't really know what to do so I kind of laughed awkwardly too.

_Why are you laughing? _

My inner monologue kicked in just in time and I stopped that weird, nervous breathing thing and leaned my elbows on the top of her desk.

"So, is that it? Am I done?"

"Well, yes and no. Yes, you're not _not_ done and well, no, you're not done."

Another joke? I started to smile, thinking that it might just be more of that quaint small town humour I'd yet to figure out, but she just shook her head and held a stack of papers out to me.

"We just need to make sure everything's in order for your registration dear. Take these to the Student Council room just down the hall, third door on your left. Ask for the President and he'll help you get everything sorted."

"Right," I breathed, taking the papers. "Down the hall, third door, President..." I repeated, only backing away slowly because this time, if it _was_ a joke, I was going to be prepared.

The Principal just smiled at me pleasantly before picking up her ringing phone.

_Okay then, _little voice in my head said. Not a joke.

Somewhat awkwardly, I left the office and wandered back out into the deserted main hall. A bright yellow clock above the door told me that it was already half past nine, class was in session and I was completely alone.

And, just like that, the veneer of enthusiasm I'd plastered on my face that morning for Sara's sake shattered.

_Why the hell am I even here?_ I asked, just about managing to stop myself from pouting like some little kid who's just dropped her ice cream. Transferring to a new school was a pain in the ass. _It'll be fun! _Sara'd told me last night over dinner. _Just imagine: the freedom to reinvent yourself, a whole new wardrobe, lots of new cute boys..._

Yeah, okay. Except, I'd _liked _my old wardrobe. I _liked _my old friends, and I'd _liked_ the old me.

I could feel my thoughts veering down a well beaten but dangerous path, so I stopped myself right there and instead tried to busy my hands with shuffling the multitude of papers. _This is my burden_, I reminded myself. Not my choice, but my penance.

So, remembering what I'd promised myself when I'd left home two weeks ago, I breathed, I put a smile on my face - which I hastily took off when I realised it looked as though I was smiling at myself - and began to walk down the hall, to the third door.

Sweet Amoris was a pretty small school, I managed to figure out all by myself. My school in Oregon had had over 700 kids in my junior year alone. SA had 300... in the entire school.

If I'd let myself, I'd have probably had a freak out. But, you know... it wasn't _that _bad. Sara's apartment was really nice. Oakheart was literally small enough to walk around so I wouldn't have to drive anywhere, which would help save the planet. I hadn't heard from my parents in a while but I was sure they'd call today to ask about my first day of school.

"See!" I told myself as I paused outside the door that had STUDENT COUNCIL announced on the glass panel. "Everything's going to be... peachy..."

I was about to knock on the door when I noticed it was slightly ajar. _You'll feel welcomed by our open door policy_, I remembered reading on the brochure Sara'd acquired for me, but then again that could have just been another attempt at humour. Unsure about how open door this policy was, I paused for a moment before biting my lip and going in.

The room was empty.

I stopped then, looking around. It was... quaint. I'd never really been much into the whole school participation thing myself though, so the neat, official surroundings made my gut churn slightly with nerves.

_Great, _I thought. Do I wait? Do I go? The Student Body president was probably in class - _like I should be - _but... down the hall, third door down was all I had to go on.

"Dammit!"

The voice came from nowhere. Startled, I jumped, only just managing to catch the stack of papers that seemed ready to escape my grasp and stumbled back into the doorframe. The voice was followed by the rattling of metal which I'd managed to localise to the file cabinet in the corner and was promptly followed by a hiss.

_Hmm, guess this is a bad time..._

"Um... excuse me?"

At the sound of my voice, a head popped up from behind one of the desks.

It was a guy, neat blond hair parted at the side, face a little red from effort. For a moment, he just looked at me and blinked. Then, seeming to realise that I was in fact there, he smiled.

"Oh, hi there. Sorry, I'm a little busy at the moment, would you mind coming back later?"

His voice was very well practised. Polite but firm, very telesales. When he straightened up a little, I noticed that his blue tie was a bit crooked and though he was trying to seem nice, he had a slightly harassed look in his eyes.

"Yeah, sure," I acquiesced immediately. In my old school, some people had thought that I was a people pleaser, but the truth was that I really didn't like to be a pain in the ass. I was turning to leave before I realised that I, in fact, had no other plan of action and caught myself.

"Actually, I'm sorry, but I was sent here by the main office. I was told to ask for the President to, uh, help me with my enrolment."

The guy stood up while I was talking and was brushing dust off of, what I have to say, was a meticulously pressed pair of slacks. He was quite tall, it turned out. Lanky, but not in a bad way. His aura of authority would have been intimidating had he not been so polite.

When he heard me, he turned to face me quickly.

"Oh, that's right. You're the new student aren't you. I'm sorry, it must have slipped my mind..."

He walked around the desks arranged in a horseshoe in the middle of the room and came toward me, smiling for all the world like I was some old friend he was happy to see.

"My name is Nathaniel, I'm the Council President."

He held out his hand, which I shook in my own awkward way. The president - Nathaniel - looked guiltily from the stack of forms in my arms to the filing cabinet in the corner as if wrestling with some inner demon before turning to me and saying, "Like I said, I'm a little busy but if you'd like to take a seat it shouldn't take me more than a few minutes."

"Uh, okay. Thanks."

As Nathaniel went back toward the file cabinet, I walked over to the closest seat and sat down gingerly, watching him. Oblivious to me, he rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows and got down on his knees. Leaning forward in my seat a little out of curiosity, I saw that the bottom draw was open and looking a little manhandled. With a very business look on his face, Nathaniel bent low and thrust his whole arm into the cabinet and began to wriggle it around.

"Um... are you okay?" I asked, wanting to keep my mouth shut but feeling a little guilty watching him struggle.

"What?" he asked, pausing for a moment to look at me. Then he smiled and said, "Oh, yeah, don't worry about it."

He went back to his task and I went back to watching. It didn't take too long to figure out that he was trying to reach for something and that that something was, unequivocally, out of his grasp.

Slightly intrigued, I left my forms on the desk and stood up, walking round to get a better look. As I did, his hand seemed to get stuck and with the help of another expletive, he jerked free.

"You look like you could use some help."

"No," he said determinedly, gazing at the cabinet like it was an old foe. "Really, it's fine. Don't worry about it."

He moved to reach into the cabinet again, but this time he banged his knuckles on the bottom of the next drawer up and cursed.

Sitting back on his heels, he pushed his hair out of his face and sighed.

"I was trying to get a file out, but its slipped and now it's stuck between the drawers. My shoulder's too big to fit in and I can't reach far enough up."

"So..." I followed up. "Help then?"

"No," he told me quickly, working that bright smile back onto his face. "It's my own fault. You really don't have to worry."

"Okay..." I gave in, "But I have to warn you. If you maim yourself, I have no first aide training."

"That's all right, I do." He moved back toward the drawer before turning back to me with a sheepish grin and saying, "Oh. That was a joke, wasn't it?"

_Sure. _

Sighing, he stood up again and turned to me. I stood there for a moment before I realised that he was looking at me. I mean, _looking _at me. Suddenly self conscious, I crossed my arms over my chest awkwardly before I realised that he was staring at my feet.

"Wow," he said after a moment. "You _are_ small."

"Five foot two's not small," I countered. I mean, okay compared to _him_ I was small but... he was a boy... "It's only menially below average."

"Right," he murmured sceptically. He cast a wistful look back at the file cabinet.

"My shoulder's smaller than yours. I could probably get in there if you want..."

"Well, it's a little dusty," he warned. "I know girl's don't really like... dust. I mean, you might ruin your sweater."

I looked down at my chest quizzically. I was wearing my 'beloved' sweater that my grandma had knitted for me when I was twelve. Absently, I plucked at a piece of unravelling thread and wondered if he really thought I was vain enough to believe that I could make even this sweater look good.

"It's fine," I told him. "If I hurt it you could always just give it CPR,"

At this, he actually laughed. A little pleased that my pre-school teacher who'd told me I'd never make friends if I didn't play outside was wrong, I shooed him out of the way and got onto my knees to peer into the cabinet and assess the situation.

"It's right there, see it?" he said, bending down so his head was close to mine.

"Uh-huh," I murmured.

Twisting my torso - away from him because my body chose that moment to register how close together we actually were - I popped my shoulder in to the cabinet as far as it would go without breaking my neck and reached up. Nathaniel had the advantage of longer arms, but I had the advantage of flexibility that only came from a life of having to dodge unsuspecting average sized citizens. I used my body to jimmy the cabinet a bit and the file slipped a little lower until I finally managed to grab it.

"Ah! Success."

"Really?" he asked hopefully.

_Yep._ I might not play an instrument, or be able to dance, but my super power was fitting into cramped, yucky spaces no one else wanted to go in.

Triumphant, I moved to pull my arm out...

And failed.

"Oh no," I muttered.

"What, is something wrong?" Nathaniel asked from somewhere behind me.

_Please God, _my inner monologue begged. _Please..._

I tried to pull again and this time the filing cabinet nearly came with me.

Nathaniel surged out, catching it before it managed to topple over and extinguish my currently short life. Cursing beneath my breath, I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that I wasn't blushing. That wasn't too much to ask for, right?

"Are you okay?" he asked again.

"Um... yeah, not really..." I mumbled. "I'm... I'm stuck."

"Oh," Nathaniel murmured. I heard him straighten up behind me and then, confusingly, begin to laugh. "I get it. This is another joke right?"

_Yeah, _I thought. _I'm having a blast, can you tell?_

"Not really..."

Suddenly the room went silent. Trying not to make a production out of it, I tried to free myself again. Yep. This was not going to happen.

"Oh no," I heard Nathaniel mutter. "This is bad. Hold on, I have an idea."

I, also, had several ideas, but none that didn't end without me losing an arm. Praying that he was as smart at he looked, I tried to turn and ask him what it was when I was surprised by a pair of arms sliding around my waist.

"Oof," I hissed as Nathaniel tightened his hold on me, feeling his fingers through my sweater as they brushed against my rib cage.

"Okay, If you hold the cabinet up with your free hand, I'll try and pull you out."

"Really?" I asked, my heart suddenly pounding. "Is that safe?"

Behind me, I could feel his body against mine as he tensed to get ready to pull. _This isn't awkward... I haven't embarrassed myself... please God, this is not the ideal moment for someone else to walk in..._

"Would you like me to go for help?" he asked, loosening his hold slightly.

"No!" I screamed, mortified, making him jump. "No just... just pull."

As he tightened his hold again, I grit my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut. I started to wonder if we should have used butter to loosen it first when he asked "Ready?"

_No. _Sucking in a breath, I braced my free arm against the filing cabinet and nodded.

And then he pulled.

The pain was immediate - _but necessary -_ so I bit down, hard, on the collar of my sweater and pushed against the locker with all my available weight. Nathaniel's hold on me tightened and he groaned as he pulled harder, lifting me off the ground.

"Oh!" I cried. Inside the cabinet, my arm slipped. "I think it's working!"

"Hold on!"

The locker rattled and then I was falling.

In the space of a second, my arm finally slipped free. I felt the sudden rush of air... and then went flying through the air.

Behind me, Nathaniel cried out. Caught off guard, he didn't have enough time to catch himself and the momentum of his pulling sent both of us flying, the file in my hand slipping free and showering the entire room in paper.

And then I hit the ground.

We landed with a thud, but luckily something soft cushioned my head. As I watched the papers raining down, I ran my fingers up my scrawny, uninjured and still attached arm and smiled.

"Hey, I'm free!"

"Ugh..."

I felt Nathaniel's voice rumble against my cheek. Freezing, arm still held aloft, I shifted my eyes slowly and took stock of the situation.

Yep.

We were both sprawled on the ground and I was lying between Nathaniel's legs, my head on his stomach.

Immediately, I felt my face begin to burn.

Beneath me, I felt Nathaniel groan again and then he was sitting up. Suddenly, with his chest pressed against my back, whatever stupid type of lethargy that had overcome me was blasted away. Moving like I was being shocked, I jerked away from him and scooted as far back as I could until I hit the wall.

_Kill me now._

Frowning, Nathaniel rubbed the back of his head gingerly and I fought the desire to bury my face in my hands and run for freedom. Jumping to my feet, I began to dash about the room instead, snatching up the papers that had been scattered manically.

"Jeez, Nathaniel I'm - I'm _so _sorry..."

I heard him get to his feet but was just a _little_ too mortified to look. Instead, I busied myself with crawling beneath the desks and hoping that the ground might just open up and swallow me whole. I could feel him watching me, though, and realised that I looked like a lunatic, crawling around the room.

"Leave those, please, it's -"

"It's my fault," I cut in, standing up with as much dignity as I could covered in dust bunnies. Without looking at him, I thrust the forms I'd picked up toward him like some kind of weird, paper based apology. "I'm just, I don't know, clumsy sometimes and -"

"Listen, it's not a big -"

"But I'll help clean up! I mean, I'll try and not break anything when I help clean up and -"

He took the forms. "It's fine -"

"But hey!" I remembered suddenly. "At least the file's out now. Right?"

This time, I did look at him, smilingly hopeful that he might find my awkwardness charming. And it wasn't pretty. Well, okay _he _was pretty, surprisingly so now that I was actually paying attention, but that was kind of marred by the fact that I was sure he now thought I had some type of progressive mental illness.

"Whoa!" he finally said, louder so he could be heard over my voice. Realising that I was still rambling, I shut my mouth as he put a hand on my shoulder and cocked a brow quizzically.

"You talk at, like, a hundred miles an hour."

I bit my lip. "Sorry."

I heard him laugh. _At me. Again._

"Well, now that I have the file, why don't I get on to your enrolment forms?"

I nodded silently, staring at my shoes as if I hoped they'd sprout lips and give me some words of wisdom.

His hand disappeared and he walked toward the desk where my stack of paperwork was waiting. With his back turned to me, I dared a glance just long enough to make sure that he wasn't just being nice and that I really hadn't... maimed him when I landed.

"Do you... need any help?"

"No," he said quickly. Turning to smile at me, he shook his head and said, "No, I think I'll manage. While I look over your forms, why don't you go and get a picture for your student ID?"

"Get a picture for student ID. Got it."

Glad to have some purpose, I rushed toward the door, anxious to be away from all this... awkwardness. Cursing myself below my breath, I called out one last thank you before I all but ran into the hall, closing the door behind me.


	2. Chapter 2

Out in the halls, everything was silent. A little glance at the trusty clock above the office door told me that I'd only been in the Council room for fifteen minutes. Which was great. In my first fifteen minutes at my new school, I'd managed to humiliate myself and come off looking like I might have sociopathic tendencies. Terrific.

Maybe approaching this whole situation with life affirming enthusiasm wasn't the right way to go about things.

_Right, picture for student ID..._

I paused then, my hand on the strap of my messenger bag, trying to remember if I'd brought an ID photo with me. That hadn't been in the brochure... had it?

"Oh crap."

No. I, in fact, had not brought a photo of me. In fact, I wasn't even sure there was a photo of me that would be appropriate for the student body to see. I tended to look... weird in photos, I don't know if it was the flash or, you know, if my face was just really weird. Either way...

"Where the hell am I supposed to get a photo at _this _time?"

It was a really good question, the only problem being that there wasn't exactly anyone around to answer it. I half turned back toward the door to the Student Council room to ask my new pal, but paused before opening the it. I couldn't imagine what Nathaniel thought of me, I didn't want him to think I was a little bit slow too.

So, instead, I walked away, wandering down the hall. I could hear voices coming from the classrooms and dared to peep in through one of the doors. The classes were really small, intimate. It was a real change from my old school, where if you were a girl the teacher's automatically called you Bethany. Everyone probably knew everyone here.

I sighed and leaned back against the nearest row of lockers, wondering if the Principal would give me a straight answer if I inquired about a nearby photo booth when suddenly I heard furious footsteps pounding down the hall. Before I could look up, a nasally voice rang throughout the corridor.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

The voice was pissed. However, the source of the footsteps was a little less... intimidating.

"Ken!?"

At the sound of his name, Ken froze and, like a character in some bad cartoon, his jaw dropped.

_Oh no, what is he doing here?_

"LEO!"

My mind began to race, trying to mathematically work out the odds of him not being a figment of my imagination and in that time Ken ran up to me, his eyes sparkling behind his big, round glasses.

"It _is_ you!" he announced excitedly.

"Yep and look... it's you!" I stumbled over the words. "W-What are you doing here?"

"I go to school here!" he announced proudly. "Don't you remember? I transferred out here when I came to live with my dad! And now you're here. This is... amazing..."

"Uh... thanks. It's... nice to see you too?"

"I wrote you a few letters after I left. Did you get them? I left one in your locker with my new address and phone number and that picture of you I took at sport's day."

I still had nightmares about that picture. I wasn't going to tell him that, though, because right then he was standing there, staring at me like... I don't know, like I was some fricken idol. Like he'd always stared at me and like I'd always pretended not to notice. He just... always seemed so eager to see me. And, okay, he was pretty intense, but he was a nice kid - as far as I knew. I didn't have the guts to be mean to him.

"This is my locker," he told me, pointing at the locker my head had been resting on. "Sorry I yelled, but sometimes the other kids mess with my stuff..."

"Oh, sorry," I said, straightening up.

I guess he really was here. I guess that this whole thing really wasn't a nightmare. I guess my parents _had_ shipped me off to live with my aunt in a tiny apartment in the middle of East Jesus Nowhere and avoided my calls for weeks.

I guess Maggie really was gone.

"That's okay! You can use my locker any time you want! I'll get a spare key made for you."

"Thanks..."

"Are you going to go to school here now? Do need some help? I can show you to your next class if you want. You can sit next to me!"

"That's... really nice of you Ken, but I'm still trying to get my enrolment sorted. Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Oh," Ken laughed, leaning back against the lockers too and scooting a little closer to me so that our arms were brushing against each other. "I get let out a little early because I'm nervous in crowds."

_Right._ Actually, that was a pretty good line. I wondered if there was any way I could make it work for me.

"So... Ken... this has been nice but I've kind of got a few things I have to do still, so..."

"O-okay," he said, reaching up and patting the top of his hair down, which I knew was an excuse not to look at me. "If you need any help or anything..."

And I felt like the world's biggest bitch. Biting my lip - mostly to stop myself inviting him along just to get that look of disappointment off his face - I began to turn away when an idea clicked.

"Hey, Ken, do you know where I can get a photo? I need it for my student ID and -"

"Yeah!" it was like I'd said something completely different to him because he looked up at me again, beaming like I'd just offered him a million dollars tax free. "I can help! Come on!"

And, just like that, he grabbed my hand and began dragging me down the hall toward the main doors.

"There aren't any photo booths in the school," he explained as we went. I don't know if it was ADHD or excitement, but he was practically running down the hall and I had to do this weird giddy-up thing to keep up with him. When we got to the main doors, he pulled me out onto the front steps and pointed somewhere off in the distance. "But they have one at the convenience store. It's just out of the gates. Turn left and keep walking, you'll be there in, like, a minute tops."

"Oh," I said, trying to tactfully remove my hand from his. "Really? That's great, thanks so much Ken."

"I'll come with you if you want."

"No!" I said, a little too quickly. He looked at me, confused and I tried to smile as reassuringly as I could. "I - I wouldn't want you to get in trouble for skipping class."

"That's so nice," he told me admiringly. "But you're always _really _nice. That's why... that's why I..."

"There's the bell!" I breathed a silent sigh of relief. Still smiling, I began to hurry down the stairs before he had the chance to say anything else.

"Be careful!" he called to me from the stairs. "I'll save a seat for you just in case your done by next period."

I turned to him as I was hurrying across the courtyard to the front gates and waved non-committally. In all honesty though, now that the shock was wearing off, I thought that it might not be so bad having Ken around. At least there was one friendly face in Oakheart, one that I was pretty sure wouldn't shun me and ignore my calls even if I accidentally almost sexually assaulted him.

For the first time that day the stupid smile I'd had plastered to my face started to become a little easier to wear. He was such a little dork.

And, just as I was becoming overwhelmed by the warm, fuzzy feeling and the memories of home, I fell.

No, not fell. Tripped. One minute I was minding my own business and the next my foot collided with something soft and smushy on the ground. I stumbled, trying to catch myself but my other foot landed on the same something squishy and the next thing I knew, I was becoming better acquainted with the ground.

"Aah!"

I fell face first, and thudded gracefully to the unpleasantly cobbly floor. Trying to save my face, I sacrificed my ribcage and landed awkwardly with a rock attacking my sternum. Groaning, I rolled over onto my back and in the process found that the source of my misfortune was a black messenger bag that I'd somehow succeeded in trampling.

_Who the hell leaves a bag lying around where people are walking?_

"Hey!"

The voice was followed promptly by a shadow. Someone was standing over me and against the sunlight all I could make out was a mop of messy, blood red hair and a beaten leather jacket.

And he looked pissed.

"What the fuck? Watch where you're going!"

I stared, incredulously, at the new face and was about to open my mouth to tell him that it wasn't my fault when he waved me away and walked over to the trampled backpack, picking it up and dusting my shoe prints off with a look of disgust.

His reaction caught me so off guard that, before I had a chance to defend myself, he'd turned and started walking away, back toward the school building.

"Moron."

And then he was gone.

And I was lying there, on my back, in the middle of the quad, staring.

_What an assehole._

It was only then I heard other voices. Propping myself up on my elbows, I looked up with dread and saw some of the students had come to the doors to watch the scene. The red haired guy pushed past them aggressively, leaving me the sole recipient of the stares. One guy nudged his friend and started to snigger.

_Great._

Wincing, I stood up and turned away so no one would see my face turn scarlet. Yep. Twenty minutes at my new school and now I was the laughing stock.

Burning the image of the jerk with his stupid squishy school bag onto my brain for future reference, I started to hurry toward the gates. I was going to leave, head held high, to get my photograph for my student ID. If I had any sense, I wouldn't come back.


	3. Chapter 3

A bell above my head dinged when I managed to shamble my way into the convenience store. Luckily, the store was about two minutes away, like Ken had said, so there hadn't really been much chance of me getting lost but it could still happen.

The old, Japanese man standing behind the counter pointed me toward the ancient photo booth in the corner and told me he was keeping an eye on me.

I got into the booth and followed the on screen instructions. Then waited with trepidation as the picture was taken. My hair was short and my bangs hung into my eyes a little bit, and I was hoping that that would take attention away from the rest of my face. It didn't. When the picture came up on screen I cringed, hoping that the student ID was just a formality and I would never _ever_ actually have to show it to anyone.

I didn't really care enough about the damn thing to take it again, so I left but there didn't seem to be anywhere to collect the photos. Confused, I went up to the front desk and asked the guy about it.

"Oh, yes," he said, pulling the picture out from a printer he had hidden behind a curtain. He looked at it for a moment before he began to laugh. "You look like someone's just stepped on your toe."

"I know, I know," I blushed, trying to grab it out of his hand but he moved it out of my reach.

"Uh -uh. That will be ten dollars, please."

"What?" I stumbled. "Ten dollars for _a picture_?_"_

The man shrugged boredly. "It's the price."

For one crummy picture?

I pulled out my wallet and, trying to be smooth, said, "Okay. I'll give you five for it."

"No bargaining!" he barked, reaching up and pointing at a sign hung up beside the cigarette display. I leaned in closer and squinted my eyes to read it.

_NO BARGAINING._

"Fine," I mumbled. I pulled a ten out of my wallet and handed it over to him. He received it with a smile and finally put the photo down onto the counter.

"Maybe you should try to smile more," he said. "Try not to look like you're being stabbed."

"Great. Thanks."

I took the picture and shoved it into my pocket without looking at it. As I left, he waved and said, "Thank you. Come again!"

_Right. I'd probably need to sell my liver for a bottle of cola._

The walk back toward the school was quiet. I dawdled - hoping that everyone would be in class again by the time I got back - and took the chance to look around. I hadn't really had much of a chance to get acquainted with Oakheart. It had been dark, the night my parents dropped me off and I'd spent the next two weeks of my exile hiding out in Sara's apartment. It was really... something. Small little shops lined the quiet roads and trees - their leaves turning that autumnal hue of auburn - lined the streets.

Sighing, I turned the corner and found myself face to face with Sweet Amoris again. There was thankfully no one in the tree lined courtyard this time but just to be sure I kept my eye out for a rogue pom-pom that could send me flying again. Luckily the jerk was nowhere to be seen, which meant my quest for vengeance would have to wait.

I hurried down the hall toward the Council office again, less mortified about facing Nathaniel now that I had a few even worse experiences under my belt. Just to be on the safe side, I knocked to give ample warning that I was coming in.

Nathaniel was sat at one of the tables, my file spread out in front of him, his head bent low. He looked pretty serious and I guiltily wondered if helping me was keeping him from something important. I thought it was kind of weird for a student to be dealing with paperwork, I thought that was what admin was for, but today had already been filled with enough surprises so I didn't really want to ask.

Nathaniel looked up at me as I tried to gracefully approach. When he saw me, he quickly stacked my forms again and stood up sombrely.

"I got the picture."

"Oh," he said pensively. "That's good but... I've found a problem."

"With the forms?" I'd been up all night last night filling them in. I even had Sara help me to make sure that I didn't miss anything out. I was sure I hadn't missed anything.

"Mmm."

Nathaniel rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding making eye contact guiltily, and said, "I'm really sorry, but there's... no way you can enrol here."

"What! Why?"

"Well..." I leaned in a little closer, thoughts running through my head at a thousand miles an hour. _Dad's going to be so pissed! What am I going to do, I don't have the chest to become a stripper! Oh God!_

Nathaniel looked at me, his face grave, his amber eyes burning...

And then he started to laugh.

"Hey, don't worry I'm kidding."

My jaw dropped.

"What? Why did you do that, it's not funny! I thought I was going to have to busk for change..."

Suddenly serious again, he clasped his hands in front of him and came a little closer to me. "I'm sorry. It's just... well you were joking earlier and... It was my attempt at..."

"Humour?" stupid small town humour. It was going to put me in an early grave.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm not really known for being funny. I guess next time I'll try harder..."

"It's okay," I offered, somehow wanting to make him feel better despite the fact that he'd just about given me a heart attack. At least he was trying to be nice, unlike some people. "Thinking about it... yeah, no, it still wasn't funny."

He smiled gratefully and then busied himself with gathering my forms.

"Anyway, I've sorted out your papers. Everything seems to be in order. If you have the photo, then I'd say you're ready to head off to the office again..."

He handed me the forms and walked me to the door, holding it open for me in a surprisingly gentlemanly fashion. I smiled and thanked him again when he told me not to hesitate to find him if I needed any more help.

"But next time," I suggested, "Leave the jokes to me."

"I don't know," he said, leaning a shoulder against the door frame casually with a slow grin, "I might surprise you."

Feeling a weird fluttering in my gut, I turned and walked away. As I did, I heard him call out, "See you later, Jill."

"Actually," I turned back, "People just call me Leo."

I set a course straight to the office, wanting this whole ordeal to be over and as the Principal processed the paperwork, I couldn't help but smile. So I guess not everyone in this town was that bad.


	4. Chapter 4

Day 2... of a moderately wetter hell

_"Wake up lazy. You're going to be late!"_

_"Mom?"_

_Before me, my mother danced around in a buoyant 1950's diner outfit, twirling a tray of steaming hot cookies._

_"That's right dear, now get up! You're father's bringing the pony around to take you to school."_

_"Okay... but why do you have a dog's tail?"_

_"Oh Leo, you say such weird things! Now get up and eat your broccoli before it runs away again."_

_I sat at the dinner table that had appeared in my room and looked down at the miniature sized trees dancing around on my plate._

_"Catch it Leo. Catch her quickly, before she gets hurt..."_

"Mom?"

"Uh... no. But I'll take that as a compliment,"

Suddenly, the scene before my eyes melted away and instead I found my eyeballs being laid siege to by shaft of bright light. Groaning, I rolled over and pulled my covers over my head protectively, knowing that the morning was evil, but a second later they were ripped away.

"Sara?"

"Bingo."

Struggling, I propped myself up on my elbows and pushed the hair out of my face. When I opened my eyes, Sara was sitting on the end of my bed, smiling at me in a way that made me instantly suspicious.

"Is there a fire?"

"Yeah. There's a fire, so I decided to come up to your bedroom so we could make our daring escape together through your window."

"That makes no sense," I told her groggily. "We live on the fifth floor."

Sara sighed and stood up. She was already dressed for work in her candy striped outfit with the stuffed toys hanging off the suspender straps. It was a little weird seeing her after that dream because she looks almost exactly like my Mom except ten years younger.

"Hmm, I see your sarcasm doesn't work before midday. That's okay. I only came in here to show you something!"

"If there's another spider in the bathtub, I'll kill it later, just don't let it smell your fear."

Sara rolled her eyes at me. "Anyway, no. I wanted to show you this!"

She disappeared for a second, and I used the time to give myself a little pinch in the leg just to make sure I wasn't still dreaming. When she reappeared, she had her hands tucked behind her back and a devilish look in her eye that made her face gleam.

"Are you ready?" I nodded with a yawn and then, with a flourish, she pulled out mystery item number one.

I stared.

"Oh... you bought me a tent?"

"No, silly!" She loped toward me, holding the thing up for me to see in all its glory. It was massive, a length of rubbery looking yellow fabric covered in little sparkling cupcakes. "It's a raincoat."

"Are you sure?" I asked, catching it when she tossed it over to me. From this angle, it looked like a little piece of my little pony hell. It turned out that the sparkles around the cupcakes were rhinestones and, lo and behold, the cupcakes were detachable.

"Yeah, and see, you can customise it yourself."

"Oh... wow. Thanks Sara this is... this is special."

"I just saw it and it made me think of you."

_What!_?

I bit back my horror long enough to force on a smile. "It's nice, but I already have a raincoat."

"I know," my aunt said, flopping down onto the bed again and blowing a stray piece of blonde hair out of her eyes. "I just thought you might like to have something a little more stylish."

Sara was originally from Manhattan, so I knew that this wasn't one of those small town jokes. As I ran my hand over the power puff monstrosity, she stared at me anxiously, waiting for approval. I smiled at her to buy myself some time, but finally she blurted, "So? Do you like it?"

"Do I?" I replied with what I hoped was an appropriate amount of enthusiasm. Do I? God, I know you aren't this cruel.

"Great!" she said, bouncing up. As she walked toward the door, she pointed to the window and said, "You're going to need it today, it's pissing down with rain."

_Great._ Welcome to day 2 of hell.

After my shower I found Sara in our tiny kitchen, wolfing down a cup of coffee as she balanced her cell between her ear and her shoulder. Not wanting to disturb her, I slipped toward the door quietly. When I turned to wave, she mouthed '_the coat'?_

I patted my bag, hoping that that would be enough. It wasn't. Sara covered the mouthpiece of the phone and whispered, "Put it on!"

Put it on. Put it on. Grimacing, I opened my bag and pulled it out, accidentally dislodging one of the cupcakes. Sara hurried over and picked it up as I shrugged it on.

"Don't worry, that'll clip right back on."

_What a relief._

"Right," I announced. "I'm going now." If I was lucky I'd step on a loose power cable before I got to school and be electrocuted.

"Have a good day hon!"

Sara wasn't kidding about the rain, it turned out. The school was only a mile away, but if I dared it without the coat I'd be drenched all day. Besides, I knew Sara was watching from the window, so I just sighed, pulled my frilly hood up, and stepped out into the rain. Screw it, it's not like I was making a sterling impression anyway.

The quad was packed when I finally arrived at SA. I tried to hurry as much as possible without compromising my ability to remain uninjured, but it wasn't fast enough. My raincoat, it seemed, gleamed like a beacon in the dull morning light and, appropriately, I could feel more than a few eyes watching it.

As I hurried up the stairs, a small group of girls paused their conversation to look at me. One of them - a blonde who's entire appearance shouted designer - gasped and turned to her friend with a horrified expression.

"Oh My God. What is that freak wearing?"

Gritting my teeth, I told myself that the coat wasn't that bad and hurried in to the hall. Not everything in life was pretty. At least it was practical.

Still, the moment I reached my locker I pulled it off like it was made of acid and shoved it into the deepest, darkest recess I could find.

The warning bell for first period went. After I'd managed to get enrolled the day before I'd been given a class schedule with a list of door numbers on it. I liberated it from the back pocket of my jeans and began to wander down the hall, looking for the right classroom.

Not that I'd needed to. Barely a few steps later I looked up to see Ken bouncing on the balls of his feet. When he saw me, he waved.

"Hey, Leo! Leo, over here!"

Blushing slightly when everyone looked over to see what the commotion was, I hurried over.

"Hi Leo. Want a cookie? They're chocolate."

"Um, no thanks. I'm... on a diet."

"Really? But you're so thin! Almost scrawny. B-But that's not a bad thing!"

Crossing my arms over my chest, I forced a smile and said. "Thanks Ken. I really needed that today."

It was only then I noticed the girl standing near us. She had a messy ginger braid flung casually over her shoulder and was smiling shyly. She'd been watching our conversation but when I looked up at her, she came a little closer.

"Hi. My name's Iris. So you're Ken's friend?"

"Yeah, kind of. We used to go to school together..."

"But then I had to move away," Ken continued for me with a bright smile. "But now she's here and we can be together again.

"Well, not_together_..." I clarified.

"What? N-No. I meant as friends. Good friends who eat lunch together and stuff."

Ken stopped talking when the teacher arrived and unlocked the classroom. He hurried in excitedly, telling me he'd save me a seat, but Iris hung back and walked in with me.

"I think it's really nice you're Ken's friend," she said softly. We watched as Ken, standing guard between two desks, flung himself on top of one when a frightened looking girl tried to sit down. "Some of the kids here kind of give him a hard time."

"So you're his friend too?"

Iris shrugged with a little smile as we made our way towards the seats Ken had viciously reserved. "Yeah. I try to look out for him. He's a really sweet boy."

"He's one of a kind."

Ken pulled my chair out for me when I went to sit down. I smiled at him, feeling strangely appreciative of him. I could do without the over the top gestures, but I guess it was just his way.

The lecture got off to a start. When I was raking through my bag, Ken jumped up and offered me his pen, then realised once he had given it to me that he didn't have another one. Rolling her eyes, Iris gave him the pen back and lent me one of hers with a smile.

It turned out to be a politics class. Though I like to think that I'm not stupid, I didn't really find anything to hold my attention, so before I knew it my mind had wandered elsewhere. For a moment, it drifted back to my carnivalesque dream and I discreetly pulled my cell out of my pocket. No missed calls. My parents hadn't called last night either.

I could feel that awful pit in my stomach opening up again. I shoved my phone back into my pocket quickly, telling myself that they were just busy. They had a lot to deal with right now, and then with Maggie...

They'd call when they had the time.

When the lecture ended, Ken and Iris waited behind while I got the teacher to sign my class enrolment sheet. As we left the room, Iris looked over the sheet and said "Jill? I thought your name was Leo."

"It is," I told her. It was weird having to explain this. Back home, I'd been in the same high school as kids I'd played with in nursery, I wasn't even sure they knew my real name. "My mom's name is Jill too, it got kind of confusing so everyone just uses my middle name."

She still looked confused so I pointed it out on the form. _Leona._ There was no way I was walking around being called that though.

"Wow, that's interesting. I didn't know that!" Ken told me a little too enthusiastically and I wondered if this information would one day be my downfall. Iris looked at me with a raised brow then away with this strange smile. I hope she didn't think that Ken and I...

"Hey!"

I turned at the sound of the voice to see none other but Nathaniel walking down the hall toward us. It looked like he walked to school too because today his neat golden hair was damp and a few rebellious tendrils were swept across his forehead. I couldn't help but think that it looked a little better that way. Less uptight, a little more... carefree.

It didn't mean I wasn't surprised when he walked right up to me.

"You dropped this."

With one of those bright smiles of his he held something out to me. I didn't realise until too late that it was my student ID.

"Ah!" I moaned, grabbing it out of his hand quickly. I then proceeded to examine my bag closely, revealing that the pocket I'd banished it to had a hole in the bottom.

"Nice picture," he said. I frowned at him, I didn't think he was the type of guy who'd make fun of me, but he just stared back with his smile, seeming for all the world genuine.

"Yeah, you're a bad liar."

"Don't worry," Iris said with a comforting hand on my shoulder. "No one looks good in those stupid ID pictures. I still have braces in mine."

I didn't have any such excuse. "No, I think it's just my weird face..."

Nathaniel frowned, "Another joke?"

Sadly, no.

"Oh. We're going to be late!" Iris chirped, grabbing me by the arm and beginning to drag me away.

I stuffed my ID into my front pocket and turned to wave at Nathaniel.

"Thanks! Just forget what you saw, it might give you nightmares."

I saw him smile when he turned away.

"Wow," Iris muttered as she pulled me into the next class. I was obsessing over the ID, trying to push it as far down as I could without crushing the life out of it and I let her lead me over to a desk. "Two guys in one day."

"Huh?" I looked up.

"Oh, nothing," she murmured as she sat down. "Just saying that Nathaniel's a really nice guy."

"I guess..."

Another class droned on, and outside the weather seemed to be somehow getting worse. I was surprised, I was under the impression that it didn't rain in hell.

While this class went on in vaguely the same pattern as the last, I noticed halfway through that I seemed to be getting a little more attention than normal. The three girls I'd passed this morning were there and I noticed the blonde one shooting me glances every now and then. I wondered if she thought my raincoat would spontaneously _poof_ onto my body, but from the way she was looking at me it looked more she hoped like it would strangle me instead.

Which, I admit, confused me a little. I mean, okay, the raincoat was mildly hideous but I didn't think it was bad enough to inspire widespread hatred. I must have just been reading her wrong, maybe she was just one of those people with a face that _looked_ pissed off all the time.

The day passed in a blur. I sat with Iris and Ken at lunch but Iris had to rush off early to do something in her music class. When she left, Ken sat and stared at me from across the table as I tried to eat my apple.

After a while of contemplation, he said, "Nathaniel has a girlfriend."

"Really?" I mumbled back. Good for him. He was attractive, why wouldn't he?

"I just thought I'd tell you in case you... you know..."

I bit off another chunk of apple and frowned. "In case I what?"

"In case you found him sexually attractive."

The chunk of apple stuck in my throat.

"I found him what?" I managed to sputter as I tried to choke up the apple.

Ken kindly waited until I stopped coughing before he shrugged and said, "I said sex-"

"I know what you said!" Where had he learned language like that? "And... but no, I mean, what?"

"Anyway, I'm going to go to class before the crowd. You wanna come?"

I stared at him, wondering if he'd really lost interest in the conversation so suddenly but it seemed that whatever he'd been trying to achieve with his little monologue, my reaction had satisfied it.

"Um... I think I'll just finish my lunch first. I'll see you there."

Shrugging, he picked up his bag and walked out the room. I watched him go, thinking it was a little unlike him to willingly leave me. Was he mad at me? All I'd been doing was eating an apple!

_This_, my inner monologue informed me, _is why you don't date._

Boys and their mood swings.

When the clock crept close to the end of lunch, I grabbed my bag and headed back for the hall. I paused for a while, raking through my bag to try and find my class schedule and found myself coming up empty.

"Hey. You're the new girl, right?"

The source of the voice, I was surprised to find, was the blond girl from my maths class. She and her friends were standing in front of me, arms folded, surveying me like I was some kind of weird science project.

But then the blonde girl smiled. It was shocking, really, because when she did I was struck by how beautiful she was. She was tall - unlike me - and in her low cut top her body looked _amazing_ - also unlike me. I wondered why she was talking to me, but I guessed that she must be nicer than she seemed.

"My name is Amber," she announced. "This is Charlotte and Li."

"Hi. I'm -"

"So, do you need some help finding your next class?"

_Wow,_ I thought. It was unexpected, but I was kind of lost. Smiling gratefully, I said, "Um. Yeah. That would be great."

I held out my class schedule to Amber, who read it silently while her friend with a pierced eyebrow - Charlotte, I think - wrinkled her nose at me and smiled.

"Right," Amber handed me back the schedule. "Follow us. We'll get you where you need to go."

They turned on their heels in a weirdly synchronised way that made me wonder if they'd rehearsed and began to walk away. Stuffing my schedule back into my bag, I followed.

They led me back out to the main hallway of the school without saying anything. I wondered if I should try to make polite conversation to be nice, but something about Amber told me that I shouldn't push the boundaries of her generosity so I decided to remain silent.

That was until they led me in the direction of the main doors.

"Hey, I don't think this is the right -"

And then, giggling, Amber's cronies grabbed me by an arm each and, gracefully, almost balletically, flung me out of the door.

I stumbled and only managed to catch myself from tumbling down the stairs. Confused, I turned around, just in time to see Amber grinning wickedly as her friends pulled the doors closed.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey!" I shouted. I grabbed the door handle, trying to push it open, but Amber just smiled at me through the glass panel in the door and twirled a bunch of keys around her finger. Then, with a flip of her long golden hair she turned and walked away.

"God dammit!"

Those bitches had locked me out! The front entrance of the building wasn't covered and I could feel the rain breaking through the thin barrier of my converse and into my socks. I knew it was useless, but I tried the door handle again. When that didn't work, I resorted to pounding on the door. I was surprised to find how thick it was.

I mean, what the hell had I ever done to deserve this? As the minutes passed and no one came, I closed my eyes and tried to think back to what evil I'd enabled in a past life.

I wasn't stupid. Amber was, for lack of a better word, your cliché high school mean girl. And, for whatever reason, she'd decided that I would make a worthy sacrifice. But, I mean, why? Did they want to upset me just for the sake of it? And wasn't locking the main door a fire hazard?

I _really _didn't think my raincoat was ugly enough to deserve this.

All effort at contact was futile so, wiping the rain out of my eyes, I accepted that it looked like I was going to have to wait. I turned around and slumped against the wall, determined to deny the fact that, yeah, I was a little upset.

_At least the rain's eased up a bit, _my inner monologue tried to comfort.

_Shut up._

I let my bag drop from my shoulder and began to scour the courtyard for a reasonably dry spot to wait out the rain. Of course, I could always just go home but... then that would mean they won. No, that was what they wanted. The only way to save my pride was to stand here in the rain for the next two hours until classes ended.

And, alas, I didn't find a refuge from the downpour. I did, however, find a pair of grey eyes.

Staring right at me.

The guy was sitting on a bench under a massive weeping willow in a little crescent of precious dryness, straight ahead of me. It only took two seconds for me to register the hair, the beaten leather jacket and the air of disdain and realise that it was that pleasant creature who'd flipped me off the day before.

And, now, he was staring at me like he thought I was mentally incompetent.

I realised then that my little door banging display might have looked a little... psycho. Still, it didn't take much more than a glance at that irritated expression on his face to make my temper flare. I mean, who the hell did people around here think they were?

So... I glared back. I wasn't really known for being tough - definitely not tough enough to stand against a guy like that, who had bad influence written all over him - but I was having a bad day. He didn't back away from my challenge, but he didn't seem that fazed by it either. Instead, he just continued to stare at me with that scowl on his face, as if I was annoying him by breathing.

I tried to look as menacing as I could... and knew I'd failed. I was pretty sure that the best I could hope for was intimidating a group of bunnies, and for some reason my anger seemed to be amusing him, so I sighed, resigned and thought that I probably didn't need any more enemies.

Deciding to be the bigger person and put our little misunderstanding from the day before behind me. I shrugged and said, "Hi."

At the sound of my voice, the guy smiled - no, _smirked_. I realised then that he had earphones in and probably hadn't heard me, so I prepared to say it louder this time but he stopped me by holding eye contact, raising his MP3 player for me to see and_turning the volume up._

Then he just flopped back uninterestedly and closed his eyes.

_Wow. Okay. Still a jerk._

It didn't really matter though. I had no interest in getting mixed up with someone like him anyway. From the tips of his scuffed black boots to the ring in his lip, he screamed bad boy. And some girls were in to that kind of thing, but me? I had enough trouble in my life as it was without sending out invitations.

Deflated by my pathetic efforts to stand up for myself, I slumped back against the wall and slid down to the floor. I was wet anyway, right?

Despite everything, I found myself staring at the asshole across the courtyard. He was good looking, but in that arrogant, belittling kind of way and I began to conjure up fantasies about punching that look off his face. Then I imagined him as Amber and punching her in the face.

While I sat, plotting my silent revenge, the guy shifted a couple of times. He looked around the courtyard and at me a couple of times, but was seemingly uninterested by what he saw and brushed over me like he wasn't aware that I was sitting in the rain soaked to my tidy whities.

This went on for what felt like day but was probably only half an hour before I saw him rake a hand through his hair frustratedly and meet my eyes again.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he snapped. _Oh, _I thought. Looks like I touched a nerve. It was a small consolation prize, but I took it.

I wanted to be brave enough to tell him that I wanted to physically assault him, but... I guess I just don't have it in me to be mean. So, instead, I cast around quickly for something that would plausibly explain why I'd been staring at him for half an hour.

"Your t-shirt reminds me of something."

With a raised brow, the guy smirked again and popped an earphone out to hear me better. Leaning his elbows on his knees, he held my gaze challengingly and said, "Oh yeah? What does it remind you of? Is it something you saw in one of your cartoons?"

I rolled my eyes and hoped he could do better than that if he wanted to get to me.

"No," I snapped. "It's a Winged Skulls t-shirt. From their tour in '10 right?"

The guy just stared at me. I smiled, feeling a little smug and not entirely sure if I should be offended that he thought I was too stupid to know about music.

After a while, he seemed to get over the shock and leaned back, watching me as if he was trying to figure out if I could fly. "_You _know the Winged Skulls?"

Grinning back, I said, "Did I stutter?"

I'd expected - _hoped_ - that this would annoy him even more, but instead he smiled, like he was genuinely amused.

"No," he countered. "I just don't know many girls who listen to them. Especially not girls who look like you."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

He shrugged non-committally and I realised that he was just toying with me again. He seemed to be getting an immense amount of pleasure out of it, though.

"You look like the type of girl who should be in class right now."

"Yeah, because it was my choice to come out here and sit in the rain," my voice dripped with sarcasm. "If it hadn't been for those stupid girls..."

Sighing, the guy closed his eyes as if I was boring him.

"There are a lot of stupid girls in this school."

You didn't need to be a genius to read between the lines and know he was talking about me.

"After Amber, you're next on my list," I mumbled.

I didn't think I'd spoken loud enough for him to hear, but at the sound of _that_ name, he suddenly jerked up.

"Wait, you mean _Amber_ did this to you?"

"Well... yeah..."

And then, completely ignorant of my pain, he began to laugh. And I don't mean chuckle. I mean gut gripping hysterics that rang out around the courtyard. I stared at him, expletives dripping off my tongue and wanted to ask what his problem was when he said, "God, I can't believe you let a bimbo like Amber bully you, don't you have any backbone?"

I narrowed my eyes threateningly, wondering if I'd ever met anyone as pig headed as this jackass. Of course I had a backbone! You've gotta have pretty big balls to willingly wear a plastic confectionery shop in public, and I was about to tell him so but my speech was cut short when I heard someone knocking on the door.

Intrigued, I stood up and looked in through the glass panel.

And there was Nathaniel.

_Oh. This is good. Now he probably thinks I'm a sexual deviant, a bit vacant, and a slacker._

He raised a curious brow and tried to open the door. When it didn't open, he looked back at me for clarification.

"I got locked out," I explained, then realised that he couldn't hear me. Behind me, I could hear Mr. Bad Attitude sniggering.

Nathaniel frowned then began waving. I squinted, wondering if this was another one of his jokes until I figured out that he was trying to tell me to go around to the side of the building.

_Gladly_. Remembering to catalogue Nathaniel as my knight in shining armour, I picked up my now sloppy bag and waved to the rebel.

"Well, this was fun."

As I trudged around the building - and about ankle deep into the muddy lawn - I heard him chuckle and say, "See you round, new girl."

When I finally managed to trip my way around the building, I saw Nathaniel holding open a fire door. Rushing toward the warmth, I stumbled in and proceeded to drip a little puddle around me one the floor.

Nathaniel closed the door and looked at me in horror.

"Wow, you're soaking! What happened?"

"I got locked out," I groaned.

"Really?"

"What?" I countered. "It happens!"

"Sorry. It's just never happened here."

_Great. That make me feel so much better._


	6. Chapter 6

Day 3... in the rumour mill of hell

The rest of the week rolled around uneventfully. Ken seemed to get over whatever was annoying him about me quickly enough and soon he was back to maiming fellow students for my sake. I'd managed to avoid any further run ins - I'd expected Amber and her friends to give me a hard time about their little 'prank' the next day, but it seemed that me walking into class half an hour late and dripping like a wet dog had been enough to satisfy her strange need for retribution against me.

And, as the uneventful days passed, I began to find the hope that it had been a one time thing; a traditional hazing of the new girl or whatever. Even so, I made it an important objective to avoid her at all possible costs.

At the beginning of my second week at SA, I was actually feeling pretty good. It hadn't rained since and the whole wearing of the raincoat experience had been banished to the back of my mind as a mildly traumatic experience. I mean, surviving Sweet Amoris until my eighteenth birthday might not be impossible!

I still had one _tiny _problem though.

And its name was Castiel.

I saw Mr. Rebel Rocker guy a few times through the week and... it really _irritated_ me. Not that he did anything. Actually, despite the fact that he was at school I don't think I'd ever seen him going to class. He seemed to spend all his time skulking about the courtyard. He was always alone.

_Probably because no one else could stand overexposure to his toxic personality._

As for me, he never gave any indication that he was aware I was even alive.

Which was fine by me. Except... it puzzled me.

So it was well established that he was a jerk, no question. But he didn't really... act jerky. In fact, he seemed to try to keep himself to himself as much as possible. Making my life hell about my little rainy escapade seemed like something he'd do, but he didn't. Which made me wonder... was he secretly a nice guy deep down? Misunderstood?

"Get out of my way, moron."

_Nope. Still a jerk._

With his arms crossed over his chest, he tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for me to move out of his way one afternoon. I did so without thinking, staring daggers at his back as he walked away.

The next day, I woke up to silence.

I'd been having another weird dream and when I woke up I couldn't help but think that something seemed unusual. Thinking that it was probably just the hangover of the dream, I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep but was surprised to see that it was sunny. Groaning, I rolled back and checked the time.

And tripped out of bed.

_Stupid alarm!_ Half awake, I ran around my room, trying brush my teeth and get dressed at the same time. It seemed my alarm clock had decided to take a day off and I was, currently, nearly half an hour late for school.

I ran the entire way, but when I arrived the halls were deserted. There were some weird flyers lying on the floor and I had to do a mad hop about trying to get one off the bottom of my shoe as I ran-skipped the way to my locker.

_Whew. Almost there._

I dived straight for my books, but as I lifted my thousand pound chemistry text book out, a folded up piece of paper slipped out of the mass and fell to the floor. I was in too much of a rush to be bothered by it, but then realising that it was probably another letter from Ken, I dashed to pick it up before anyone had the chance to witness that part of my life.

Slamming my locker shut, I hurried away and unfolded the letter with slight trepidation, wondering if it would be better to not read it and be able to claim plausible deniability.

What I saw, however, stopped my in my tracks more violently than any stupid letter could.

Because it wasn't a letter.

It was a photocopy of a picture. _My_ picture, from my student ID. My pale face stared up at me with that weird, startled expression behind a thin, pencil moustache.

It looked like a preschooler with ADHD and some serious anger issues had gotten their hands on it. Now, my already shocking picture came with a full compliment of coloured out teeth, a moustache and a uni brow.

Standing in the middle of the hall, I stared down at the photocopy with a sick feeling welling up in the pit of my stomach. It was so stupid... but somehow it really bothered me that someone hated me enough to stoop to this level.

And then something even worse happened. I looked around the hall, at the flyers scattered on the floor. They weren't flyers.

Horrified, I grabbed one up of the floor and had to bite back a strangled cry. They were more photocopies of the same stupid picture!

And everyone had probably seen them.

Biting back a stupid well of tears I could feel burning behind my eyes, I crumpled up the photocopies and began to run around the hall, grabbing all the others lying on the ground. There were _a lot_. And it didn't end there because dozens of copies had also been pinned up all along the notice boards running down the hall.

And the bell rang.

I felt a rush of dread as I heard the opening of doors. In tandem, streams of people began to pour out of the classrooms and into my disaster. Frozen in horror, I just stood there in the middle of the hall, clutching the photocopies against my chest and listened as the madness erupted.

I felt the eyes. A few people picked up some of the photocopies on the floor. And they were laughing. At me.

_Again._

The only thing that could make this day any worse came careening into my path like a car crash barely a minute later.

Amber's eyes were glowing viciously. With a smug grin on her face, she came up to me and held up her own personal photocopy and showed it to me _just_ in case I hadn't seen it already.

"Hey there loser. _Great _picture."

All I could do was stare. I wasn't used to feeling... hatred. But right then, staring at the pleasure on her stupid perfect face, I knew that she had done it and I felt like someone had dropped a burning match into my chest.

She smiled and pointed to the full, lustrous beard she'd drawn on my face and said, "It _is_ better when you can't really see your face! You'll probably be able to grow a beard before your pathetic excuse for a boyfriend anyway."

_Ken._

There were so many things I wanted to say... words burning on my tongue, a sea of wrath bursting to drown Amber in its ferocity, but... I couldn't. Actually, with her there, mocking me, I felt stupidly close to tears. I knew I had given her exactly what she wanted. She knew it too.

"Sorry, but I gotta run. Don't want to be late for class."

And then, just like that, she walked away calling out to a couple of people ahead of her and giving them copies of the picture.

_It's okay. It doesn't matter._

It did though. As much as I hated to admit it, it really did.

Steeling myself, I forced back those pitiful tears because I wasn't a baby, she wouldn't break me that easily, and began to push through the crowd. They parted for me like they were afraid that loserdom was contagious through close contact. I didn't pay attention as they drifted back into class, I just went up to the notice boards and continued to rip the posters down.

I also ignored the footsteps I heard coming down the hall, even when they stopped right behind me. I waited for whatever stupid comment was coming my way, but instead all I saw was a hand over my shoulder reach up and rip off one of the posters I'd missed.

Turning, I found myself staring at Nathaniel.

"Hi."

He was cradling a stack of papers in his arms. It didn't take a second look for me to know that they were photocopies.

_God._

Nathaniel looked between my face and my own stack of photocopies with a guilty grimace. "I was hoping to get them all cleaned up before you saw them."

I couldn't reply. Instead, I just nodded dumbly, hoping that that would be enough to convey my appreciation. I wondered how long he'd been walking around campus picking up those stupid flyers. It was incredibly... sweet.

I needed that right now.

"Just when I thought that picture couldn't get any worse," I finally managed to breathe out,

Nathaniel shook his head and tactfully pried the posters I was clutching out of my grasp. "I just... I don't understand who would do this to you."

I snorted, wondering if he was one of those people who was unable to see the bad in others.

"It was Amber," I said confidently. The leader of the pack, picking on the lame and the weak. Bitch.

Even though this hadn't come as news to me, the look on Nathaniel's face when I said her name made it seem like he'd just received some unpleasant godsent revelation. He shook his head.

"What? Are you sure? That's a pretty big accusation to make without any proof."

_What?_ For a moment, I just looked at him in confusion. Was he on Amber's side then? I narrowed my eyes and said, "No proof needed. She hates me."

Wasn't it obvious? And talking of proof, there's was only one way Amber could have gotten her hands on that student picture: my school records. Only the administration had access to those.

The administration and...

"Why, do you think I'm lying?"

"No!" Nathaniel said, seeming to lose that unnatural composure he'd always had since I met him. He ran his fingers through his hair in exasperation. "It's just... I mean, I know Amber..."

Then he wasn't as smart as I'd thought.

"Look, thanks for the help," I said, seeing where this was going. I didn't want to admit that I was disappointed that he believed someone like _Amber_ over me but then... he _knew_ her. For all he knew, _I_ could be a liar. For all I knew, so could he.

I reached out and grabbed my posters back and turned to walk away but Nathaniel followed, catching me with a hand on my elbow. He looked irritated, and I was starting to come to the conclusion that I must just have that effect on people. After asking me to wait, he ran his hand through his hair again.

"Look, this is a little awkward for me, because..."

When he paused, I had a sinking feeling in my gut. Ken's little outburst last week floated into my mind like a heavy rain cloud._ Nathaniel has a girlfriend._

_You've got to be kidding me._

This was just too cliché. The nice guy dating the school bitch, oblivious to her flaws. Man, was I screwed if my new arch nemesis was dating the President of the School Council!

"Because Amber's my sister."

I paused. "Oh."

I wasn't sure if that was better for me or not. "So... Amber's your... wait, what?"

Nathaniel sighed. "My sister."

"How is that possible.

He looked at me sceptically before saying, "Well, it is possible for people to have more than one child in America..."

"I know that!" I rolled my eyes. "I just meant that, well... your so nice and she's... _Amber._"

"Wait, was she the one who locked you outside last week?"

I nodded bleakly, wondering if this really was a surprise to him. I mean, if he lived with her, surely he'd noticed, right?

When opened my mouth to continue my barrage against Amber, I was stopped dead by the look on his face. My voice dying, I tried to bite back the guilt I felt at the disappointment I could see in his eyes.

"Look, I'm sorry," I said softly, "I shouldn't have said anything. It's not really my place to be outing Amber -"

"No," he cut in sharply. "No. It's not your fault. If she's really to blame, then she should be punished for what she's done."

I ignored the fact that he still wasn't completely on my side, but found myself strangely pleased that he was willing to believe me. I also felt a pleasant tingle at the mention of _punishment_ and _Amber _in the same sentence.

"Why don't you head in to class?" Nathaniel asked gently, his composure seeming to have returned. He smiled and gestured to the posters I again found myself in possession of. "I'll stay here and take care of the rest."

I let him take the flyers from my grasp and smiled. "Thank you. You're... never mind."

"I'm what?" he asked.

Despite myself, I could feel my face growing hot in some stupid, weird blush and quickly looked down at my shoes, hoping to hide it from him. For some reason, I felt really awkward saying, "You're a really good guy."

Before I found another way to humiliate myself around him, I walked away, feeling a little better. Until I realised that it was only second period.


	7. Chapter 7

I spent most of the morning classes with my face buried in my books, trying hard to avoid eye contact as much as possible. When third period got out, there were no signs of the damned posters in the hall - which I silently thanked Nathaniel for - but people were still sniggering. I decided to try and escape the eyes for a few minutes at least out in the courtyard. It had become overcast and none of the other students had braved the cold so I was blissfully alone.

Grateful for the silence, I made my way over to the bench under the willow and sat down. Out here, it was easier not to think about Amber. Maybe even to laugh a little bit about what she'd done. It was pretty stupid. I was reconciling with the idea that the rest of the day might not be that bad.

Until I heard the smug voice behind me.

"Nice picture, new girl."

When I turned, Castiel was smiling wickedly. I cringed when I saw the poster in his hand, which he kindly showed to me as he leaned his elbows on the back of the bench.

Gasping, I grabbed the poster from his hand and crumpled it up, which seemed to amuse him.

"You've seen it too?"

"Yep." he hopped over the bench easily, dropping down next to me and sprawling out in that languid fashion of his.

"Is there anyone who hasn't seen it?" I whined, dropping my head.

Castiel laughed. "No. There is not."

"Don't laugh!" I snapped at him, tossing the poster across the courtyard irritably. "It's not funny. It's not your picture that was put up all around school."

He snorted in derision. "No one would dare do that shit to me."

_"No one would dare do that shit to me'". _I mimicked in a whiny voice. I mean, what did he want me to do? I had plans to restore my honour, I just hadn't gotten around to them yet. Irritated, I turned to face him challengingly and said, "Okay tough guy. What do you suggest I do about it then?"

He raised a brow at me, as if questioning if I was really stupid enough to ask that question. Then he pulled his MP3 player out of his pocket and said, "Yeah, I really don't care enough to be giving you advice."

"My talks with you are always so enlightening."

Castiel rolled his shoulders and said, "What do you want from me, anyway? I'm a gentleman, I don't hit girls."

It wasn't possible to stop the snort that escaped my throat at the inclusion of him and the word 'gentleman' in the same sentence. It irritated him, I could tell, but come on, what did he expect?

"It doesn't matter," I told him, crossing my arms over my chest stubbornly. "I don't need your help. One day, I'll get my revenge."

The process of explaining my detailed vengeance fantasies was cut short by the bell. Castiel didn't move, which I took to mean he was planning on skipping class again. He did, however, tap his bottom lip thoughtfully as I grabbed my bag and stood up.

"Now that," he said softly. "Is something I'd like to see."

* * *

The laughter didn't die down for the rest of the day. I hadn't expected it to, but it got more bearable as the hours went on. Iris sat with me at lunch and tried to cheer me up by telling me that she thought I looked very dashing with a moustache.

I couldn't help but notice Ken's pointed absence from my presence today. As we walked to fifth period, I wondered why that was. Avoiding me? Guilt?

I couldn't stop thinking about Amber's comment about my 'pathetic excuse for a boyfriend'. What had Ken been telling people?

When school finished, he was waiting for me in the courtyard.

"Hey Leo! I thought we could walk home together?"

"Ken!" I screamed, stomping my way over to him with a scowl on my face. Ken's smile faltered and he cowered away. "Why does Amber think you and I are dating?"

"W-What?" he stuttered. "I - I mean, I don't -"

"What have you been telling her?"

Ken reached up and patted his hair down self consciously, his face going red. I wanted to feel bad about making him uncomfortable, but I couldn't let him get away with spreading stupid rumours. Things were going badly enough without him making them worse for me, I thought he was supposed to be my friend.

"I didn't tell them anything," he insisted before continuing sheepishly. "She just started asking all these questions about you, so I told her the truth."

"You told her we were going out!?"

Ken flushed even darker. "No, not really... I just told her that I really, really liked you and -"

"Geez Ken! Why'd you say that?"

"I- I don't know. I'm sorry..."

_Great. _"God Ken, you need to watch your mouth! If you _ever_ tell anyone else we're dating again... Argh!"

I saw Ken's eyes shoot up toward me. I could see that they were hurt. I didn't care, I just wanted people to stop messing with my life! God dammit, why couldn't _anyone_ just leave me the hell alone?

Ignoring his stupid, moonish face, I pushed past him and strode toward the gates,


End file.
